Interesting. I didn't think designs had firmed up enough for them. However, "very early" is extremely vague and "more details this summer" gives them plenty of time. They can't say "no plans at this time" or they'd alienate many possible buyers. Given they way they test before shipping, my guess is at the very very very earliest Christmas, but more likely 12-15 months. With things like this I love to be wrong. (on the early side....) They've had their last/latest SD-DVD player in beta for months now.

larry

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. -- Thomas Alva Edison

YES! I just hope they do chose to use quality a upscaler and deinterlacer like in the 983. If they can release something like that and maybe include SACD playback, I would be on board for up to $600. I might actually be able to get away with one player in my system.

My dad is waiting for a blu-ray player that can also play DVD-A and SACD but I told him he would be waiting a long time. Perhaps this Oppo will come to the rescue with 7.1 analogs out and internal decoding of DTS MA and Dolby TrueHD??

My dad is waiting for a blu-ray player that can also play DVD-A and SACD but I told him he would be waiting a long time. Perhaps this Oppo will come to the rescue with 7.1 analogs out and internal decoding of DTS MA and Dolby TrueHD??

I don't care about the analog outs but a BRD player with HD CODECs and SACD would float my boat. Pricing would be irrelevant, in the Oppo context, of course.

I believe Oppo tends to listen to their customers (more than most anyway), so when their BR player does eventually come out, I'll bet it'll be fully loaded with the bells and whistles we all want. The power of suggestion.

"Some people are like Slinkies--not really good for anything, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs."

How about something simple such as CD text too? If I could also use the machine to play FLACs stored on an external hard drive, I'd pay $500-700 for it. The 983 is rumoured to cost in the $350 range, so I can't see a Blu-Ray player coming in at less than that. My guess would be that it will be in the $450-550 range if it's out by early '09.

I'm in the market for a new DVD player since I've got a new TV and would like better upscaling than my old Pioneer offers. But, my pioneer is gold to me because it plays SACD and DVD-A. For this reason I was considering the Oppo 980 or perhaps waiting for the 983, and planned to buy a BD player some time later in the year. Of course, since my TV only has 2 HDMI inputs, and I don't want to deal with a switch box, an Oppo that can do BD and DVD as well as SACD and DVD-A would be abolutely perfect, so long as the audio quality of the SACD, DVD-A and redbook was as good or better than their other offerings.

I've got an Oppo 981 and a Panny BD30, so I have my bases covered, but the Panny has the LFE bug, of course. When Oppo releases a player that does it all and does it well and does it affordably (which is their style), I'll sell those two and I'll be all over it.

Since I'm planning on buying the 983 as soon as it's out, I'd kinda like to see Oppo jump into the Blu-Ray market quickly with just a basic BD-only player (transport?) a la the Denon 2500 - no DVD upconverting, no SA-CD, nothing but BD goodness.

Not sure if that makes sense for Oppo since they have built their rep on upconverting players, but it would be great for all of their existing customers. I absolutely agree that Oppo also needs to build a great all-in-one unit that does everything, including great ABT upconverting, but the development of that will probably be slow and I'm hoping for something from Oppo sooner!

this is great news, finally maybe a reasonable price for bluray player. If these one gets in the market this might be my 2nd br player. Hopefully they come with all new audio codecs so I can pair this with my Onkyo 705.

The first thing I did after learning the format war was over was jump on this forum and search to see if OPPO was in the mitst of releasing a Blu Ray player. This is great news and I will wait until its release to jump on board.

I would really like a player that supports SACD and DVD-A as well but my guess is I am kidding myself in that regard.

this player should cost $300 or less in my honest opinion. i don't know anything about the 983 (i am quite happy with my 970).

i want to be able to continue to upscale over component (i'd like it if manufacturers would allow this right out of the box, but if there is some sort of "work-around" available on the internet like the 970, i would be happy with that, too). i really don't understand why upscaling over component is perceived as such a bad thing by the studios (who are responsible for "telling" the hardware manufacturers to cripple their machines).

My dad is waiting for a blu-ray player that can also play DVD-A and SACD but I told him he would be waiting a long time. Perhaps this Oppo will come to the rescue with 7.1 analogs out and internal decoding of DTS MA and Dolby TrueHD??

I've been saying for the better part of the past year. Oppo needs to make a HD, SACD, DVD-A player for 600 or less now!!!

i want to be able to continue to upscale over component (i'd like it if manufacturers would allow this right out of the box, but if there is some sort of "work-around" available on the internet like the 970, i would be happy with that, too).

umm, you might want to read the specs again. Unless you're playing ripped/burned DVDs, they are only upconverted over HDMI. I have an OPPO, so when I read your post I checked their website to be sure.